News Analysis

Seldom has the election for a single state supreme court justice had the power to change so many things at the state level, and potentially the national level, as this month’s race in Wisconsin.

That truth was not lost on liberal, conservative, and special interest groups across the country, whose contributions had made the duel between progressive-leaning Janet Protasiewicz and conservative-leaning Daniel Kelly the most expensive state supreme court election in American history.

The win by Protasiewicz gives liberals a four to three majority on the state’s highest court.

This advantage, coupled with the veto power vested in Democrat Gov. Tony Evers, is seen by liberals as a way to safeguard their influence and even forward their agenda.

Republicans fought hard to ensure that a retiring conservative justice would be replaced by another conservative to maintain their edge. The GOP has a super-majority in the state senate and control of the state house.

After a record voter turnout for a spring election not associated with a presidential primary, Protasiewicz, whom observers believe benefited from the abortion issue, defeated Kelly by 11 points.

Protasiewicz’s victory made her the likely deciding vote in a lawsuit brought by state Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, to do away with an 1849 abortion law that lay dormant on the books until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last year.

The revived law criminalizes the performing of an abortion except to save the life of the mother.

The new progressive majority on the state’s high court could also help determine the winner of the 2024 presidential election by voting to thwart any effort to overturn the results in the case of a disputed contest.

Trump forces lost a case in 2020 when they asked the state supreme court to nullify the outcome of that election due to a number of alleged illegalities.

In a four-to-three ruling, the justices rejected the request.

Conservative-leaning Justice Brian Hagedorn joined three progressive-leaning justices in the decision that kept the state’s 10 electoral votes in Joe Biden’s column.

Official results show that in 2020 Biden defeated Trump by 21,000 votes, an outcome that many Wisconsin Republicans regard as illegitimate.

It was Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes that put Republican candidate Donald Trump over the 270 needed to win in 2016.

The new Wisconsin Supreme Court, with its first progressive majority in 15 years, may also be asked to decide cases involving proposed rules for the conduct of the 2024 presidential election.

The apportioned boundaries of state legislative and congressional districts could also be subject to challenge before the Supreme Court.

And voter ID laws and stricter absentee ballot handling procedures passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature could potentially be declared unconstitutional if challenged in front of the new court.

It was by a four-to-three vote that the use of unattended ballot drop boxes was declared illegal—a decision that could now be reversed by the court’s new progressive-leaning majority.

On the economic front, Wisconsin’s Right to Work law and Act 10—the statute prohibiting public employees from engaging in collective bargaining, as well as the lifting of the prevailing wage requirement on public works projects—could be undone.

Kelly made a campaign issue of Protasiewicz’s record of what he said were her “soft on crime” decisions while she served as a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge.

Conservatives worry that Protasiewicz’s liberal philosophy may jeopardize any toughening of the state’s criminal statutes while strengthening gun control on the law-abiding.

The state’s environmentalists are hopeful that the new progressive justice will favor stronger regulations to protect the environment.

By the time the final campaign finance reports are filed in July, the supreme court candidate’s own committees and special interest groups are expected to report spending nearly $50 million on the April 4 election and the February primary.

The previous spending record for a supreme court election in Wisconsin dwarfs in comparison—$10 million set in 2020.

Nationally, the previous all-time record was $15 million set by Illinois in 2004.

Preliminary reports show Protasiewicz’s candidate committee outspent Kelly’s committee by six to one.

“Most of the contributions came from outside Wisconsin,” said State Representative Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls).

Brandtjen, a leader in the state’s election reform movement, told The Epoch Times that nearly two weeks after the election, she and her fellow Republicans are still “licking our wounds.”

She said that, in their determination to win by any means necessary, Wisconsin Democrats are continuing to do things that skirt “right up to the edge of illegality, if not beyond.”

“’Do things first and worry about the law later’ is their way of campaigning.

“Their attitude is, ‘Catch me if you can, and when you do, it will be too late.’”

A recent case in point highlighted by Brandtjen was the giving of hundreds of dollars of gift cards to so-called digital “mobilizers” in an effort to boost turnout among low-propensity Democrat voters.

The gift cards were given out by a left-leaning non-profit group through a specially created political action committee set up to promote progressive causes and candidates.

“They started the day after the February primary. Who paid for the gift cards?

“This looks like a clear violation of Wisconsin state law. I hope the Republican Party will take this to court,” Brandtjen said.

Brandtjen told The Epoch Times that she is worried that the new liberal majority on the state supreme court will be used by the Democrats to “undo every good thing that’s been done for the people of Wisconsin over the last 10 years.”

This whipsaw effect harms the “stability of government,” she said.

“When did the Democrats decide not to follow policies that, not too many years ago, were generally agreed upon by both parties?” she asked. “Things like safe communities, good education in winning schools, low taxes, and a healthy business environment.”